Shannon Estuary
The River Shannon is the longest river in Ireland and meets the sea via the Shannon Estuary, located between south County Clare and north County Limerick and County Kerry.
The estuary itself stretches from Limerick City right out to the end of Loophead in County Clare and has miles of sheltered, relatively deep waters that are perfect for exploring by boat. Bird watchers can see Ireland's largest amount of wintering waders, as well as the redshank, waterfowl and black-tailed goodwit from the area.
The Shannon Estuary is home to a resident pod of over 100 bottlenose dolphins and is one of only three resident pods in Ireland. You can take tours to see them from Carrigaholt.
You can go angling in the Shannon Estuary, either shore fishing or deep sea angling with charter boats from the likes of Kilkee, Carrigaholt and Killbaha. If you go inshore fishing in the Shannon Estuary, expect the likes of tope, flatfish, conger, thornback ray and rockling. Deep sea angling off Loophead can see fishermen coming in with catches of coalfish, blue shark, pollack etc.
You can also take tours of the estuary and explore the region by power boat, sail boat or yacht. The estuary is an important tool for industry and importing / exporting to Ireland with a deep water port at Foynes, County Limerick and power generation stations at Moneypoint in County Clare and Tarbert, County Kerry.
You can cross the estuary by ferry from Killimer, County Clare to Tarbert, County Kerry.
